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What most friends do
What most friends do
By: Stephen Moffett
Topics: missionary, Africa, friendship, poetry
Posted by ssmoff3 Thu Jun 28, 2007 14:12:05 PDT
Viewed 295 times
0 responses 0 comments
A few months back, an article was published in the Southwest Voice about a man named Paul Prelle. The article was written by Carlyn Gonzales, an 11-year-old-girl who was both proud and sad to hear that her pastor and friend, Paul, had decided to give up his comfortable life in America and exchange it for a missionary's life in West Africa.
The most amazing part of Paul's decision is that he has a wife and two very young children. The amount of conviction and determination required to risk both his own life and the life of his family in this new and dangerous world makes Pastor Paul a modern day apostle of Jesus Christ.
The most amazing part of Paul's decision is that he has a wife and two very young children. The amount of conviction and determination required to risk both his own life and the life of his family in this new and dangerous world makes Pastor Paul a modern day apostle of Jesus Christ.
I write these things for two reasons: first, to refresh your memory of a man who is worth remembering, and second, to add my own thoughts and best wishes to Carlyn's.
Paul Prelle was not only my pastor, he is also my mentor and my best friend. For the last six years, Paul and I have worked side-by-side as ministry partners for Point Break Ministry at Calvary Chapel Westbrook. Though we did not spend much time together outside of church functions, I have loved Paul like a brother for many years.
I was honored to be the last of his friends to spend time with him before he and his family left Bakersfield, and when I saw him, I gave him a poem that I had written for him.
Today, I wish to share that poem with my neighbors in Bakersfield as a way of honoring and remembering my best friend.
To Paul Andrew Prelle, the best friend I ever had:
Most Friends Do
We rarely hung out like most friends do
We rarely chatted on the phone like most friends do
We rarely caught a movie like most friends do
But we laughed like best friends do
I never had a sleepover at your house like most friends do
I never got you those “just because” gifts like most friends do
I never shared most of my joys and sorrows like most friends do
But I love you like best friends do
I often wonder why we never did what most friends do
But we have so many things that most friends don’t
We have a ministry that we’ve grown together
Side by side for year after year together
Doing God’s Will as a team and as brothers
And we couldn’t have done it without one another
We have Sunday nights at JVs and Magic Mountain
We have "Grandma Moses", "Git-R-Dun", and trips to the ocean
I call you "Pumpkin Butt" and you call me "Chicken Lips"
And if that’s not friendship, I don’t know what is
You have been and still are my very best friend
And I will never forget you as long as I live
I’m really not a great poet so this final verse might suck
But if I get blessed with a big hunk of luck
I’ll clearly convey that I’d rather do anything with you
Than do whatever it is that most friends do.
Paul: I love you, I miss you, and I am praying for you and your family. Thank you for being a Godly example to your entire family at Calvary Chapel Westbrook.
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